My Mom Had Alzheimer’s. Does That Mean I’ll Get It Too?

Children of parents with Alzheimer’s spend a lot of time thinking about what they can do to avoid the disease. I know this firsthand: My mom passed away last fall at the age of 84, and she struggled with significant cognitive decline in her final years. We still had good times together, but it’s impossible not to feel a bit robbed by the whole experience.

It’s also hard not to feel defeated when it comes to my own risk. My mom walked dogs for decades, volunteered throughout her 70s and read voraciously—all of which should have decreased her odds of getting Alzheimer’s. I wondered: Is my own cognitive crash and burn inevitable?

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Not necessarily, says Dr. Nicole Anderson, director of the Ben & Hilda Katz Inter-Professional Research Centre in Geriatric and Dementia Care at Baycrest in Toronto. One of the biggest misconceptions about the disease surrounds family history—more specifically, that it’s the only determinant in developing Alzheimer’s.

“In the vast majority, there might be a genetic contribution,” she says, “but if you’re carrying certain genes, that doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.” (Alternatively, you can still get the disease without carrying those genes.) Anderson says genetic testing isn’t recommended for this reason.

The good news? The incidence of dementia in western countries is on the decline, and there are scientifically proven things we can do to mitigate individual risk.

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By 2020, the Lancet Commission had identified 12 potentially modifiable factors that could significantly reduce risk. Some of these factors are not that modifiable—people who have lower levels of education, live in polluted areas or have had a traumatic brain injury are more likely to get the disease. But many other factors are either preventable or treatable, including high blood pressure, smoking, physical inactivity and diabetes.

The FDA has approved two drugs to treat Alzheimer’s, but Anderson says the benefits are minimal. “It’s ridiculous to wait until people have Alzheimer’s to start treating it.”

To that end, a new facility at Baycrest is focused on prevention. Those who visit the Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness will receive a dementia risk-factor assessment and programming in five different “buckets”: exercise, social connections, stress reduction, cognitive engagement and brain-healthy eating.

“Could you do everything perfectly and still get Alzheimer’s? Yes,” says Anderson. “But you might live more years in good cognitive health before it develops.”

Was it possible that my mom’s healthy lifestyle gave us more good days together before her decline? I’ll never know for sure, but it’s made me feel a lot less defeated about her fate—and my own.